


Tales From Above

by SenjuMizusaya



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Awesome Aida Riko, Bad Puns, Bisexuality, F/F, F/M, Female Izuki Shun - Freeform, Flirting, Fluff, Genderswap, Humor, I guess the izuki/everyone is more of an izuki/most, Izuki Shun's Puns, Kasamatsu Yukio Cannot Handle Girls, Kissing, M/M, Reverse Harem, Sort Of, Teenagers, and all the ensuing drama, how are those not tags?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-27
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2020-10-01 21:36:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20412553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SenjuMizusaya/pseuds/SenjuMizusaya
Summary: Izuki Shun had black hair like most girls, short hair like some girls, silvery eyes like few girls and played basketball on Seirin's basketball team like no other girl did.Mostly because there were no other girls on the team, but her point was still valid. Points from point guards had to be, after all.(MultiIzuki, major Hyuuko, lots of Kagaroko, some Mitonei and more.)





	1. Chilly Chili

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own KnB!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm done for. I'm dead. I thought "what if Kasamatsu faced a girl on court", then everything spiraled from there and this happened. It's a thing, not a fic, but I love it nonetheless. (Okay, it's a fic.)
> 
> Now, when it comes to being the only girl on a guy team. Of course there's going to be comments and struggles, and I won't deny that in this story, but it won't be the focus either. There could be a whole fanfic just about that, but I do want to add other stuff in here so.... 
> 
> I've read too many stories which stop halfway through season one, and I'm sure guys have too, so I'll try not to get stuck on details and move forward with the story. This especially goes for the beginning of the story, so when it comes to pacing: please don't judge too harshly? 
> 
> As for sexualities: I haven't got a clue, I'm just going with a whole lot of loosely planned gay, bi and simply existing. The "everyone" part is a rather loose term, but yes, it includes Momoi.

"Have I seen you before?" 

Izuki slanted a look over her shoulder to regard the inarguably unknown young man who had interrupted her advertising for the basketball club. He was dark of hair with tousled bangs, uniform failing to hide buff muscles, possessed a laid back air, his wide grin both suave and cocksure. 

Not interested. 

"Yeah," she lied blankly, "and that's why I have been avoiding you ever since." 

His face fell faster than a falcon diving to sink its claws into the targeted prey. Izuki felt more smug than guilty and cheerily waved him away as he disappeared into the tumultuous masses churning around them. 

She could feel Koganei's flat stare on her back and she flashed him an amiable grin. "He sort of reminded me of a bison-" 

"You've cracked the _bison-bye son_ joke thrice these last few months already," the catlike young man interrupted hastily, brandishing his undistributed papers like a sword.

"Hmm, you're right," she agreed, not hesitating to use her brutally effective smile to hand over flyers to passing guys. She truly wanted Seirin's team to fill up, but part of her worried that if a new recruit showed enough promise as point guard, she'd be subbed out and left to her own devices not because he was that much more skilled, but rather because it was a hassle to keep a girl on the team. 

She discarded the thought in favor of mulling over her meager repertoire of animal jokes. She'd never noticed how lacking it was. 

Her decision to focus on animal puns turned out to be a good choice when a tall, tanned male who didn't just remind her of a tiger but simply seemed to _be one_ kidnapped Koganei with the demand to be taken to the basketball stand. 

"He's easily spotted," she murmured as she and Mitobe followed from a safe distance without losing sight of the tall redhead. "Usually tigers are striped instead. Striped, spotted, striped, spotted- geddit?" 

Mitobe weighed a hand on her shoulder and gave her such a blank look even she could translate it into '_no, just no_'. 

"You're right, it was a bad one," she muttered sulkily. The doors to the world of creativity was cruel: it only ever opened when she didn't need it. (Usually when Hyuuga would be driven up the walls or her maths teacher would burst into tears. Apparently feeling divided about the answers of a division was not acceptable.)

The ridiculously tall kidnapper's name was Kagami Taiga. Riko and Hyuuga were visibly impressed, the former gaping and the latter unblinking. 

"Basketball's always the same here in Japan," he sneered before walking away, lips curled with contempt though he'd signed the form nonetheless. 

"I have the feeling this year will be interesting," Hyuuga commented with a vague smile as he watched the tall first year's retreating back. 

Then Koganei pointed out a paper Riko had missed and things got even more interesting. 

"_How could I have missed this golden egg?!_"

.

That afternoon, while heading to the gym, Izuki already knew what to expect. She'd been underestimated and looked down on the previous year -Seirin needed a point guard, she needed to play basketball and keep the then even more socially incapable Hyuuga in check, everybody was happy except for those not on the team, which was the vast majority of the world- for being a girl. 

She rounded the corner and paused, eyes falling on the vending machine. The gates of creativity opened to cast a trickle of divine light, and she smirked. 

.

At the still new-looking court, ickle firsties were already lined up like the pickles on her sandwich (she didn't have pickles on her sandwich, _ever_, but that wasn't important) and her teammates had already arrived. 

"Looks like we've got ourselves a whole batch this time around," Izuki noted after regarding the wannabes for a good minute, swirling her apple-lemon energy drink. 

"Yup, but count on a fifty percent drop-out rate within the first two weeks. It's the standard," Riko muttered absently whilst reviewing something on the top page of her clipboard. "See any Miracle-worthy guy?" 

"Aside from Tiger-chan, not really," she admitted, "but who knows? Miraculously one of these might be a Mir-" 

She was cut off by avoiding a flick from the clipboard, the weapon whipping past overhead. The brunette's tone was accusing: "Your puns have always been horrid, but today is a whole new league." 

The inky-haired girl laughed, a free and soaring sound which was too rough around the edges to be dignified. "Yep, I'm a league of my own!" 

By then, some of the hopeful first years had started whispering. The raven could hear them comment on Riko's cute appearance, dubbing her as the manager, as well as wonder if Izuki was the captain for the female team, here to share her opinion. When clad in baggy training clothes which hid slender curves, paired with her short hair and pretty though androgynous face, it tended to take a minute for those not in the loop to go from classing her as a girly boy to a girl as a whole. 

"Idiots," Hyuuga reprimanded with a whack to the back of their heads. "Riko and Izuki are neither manager nor Captain." 

"I'm the point guard," she announced merrily, but her jaw was tight with stubbornness and her silvery gray eyes hard. "Meaning I'm a player on this very team, in case it wasn't obvious."

There was a cacophony of surprised whispers and buzzing skepticism, the gist of which was: _can she do it despite being a girl?_

Izuki held up the tin can from the vending machine as though proposing a toast, entirely too pleased. "Yes I can!" 

She ducked beneath Riko's second attempt at a whack, her spatial awareness coming in handy since the shorter girl stood behind her. 

"And I'm the coach, Aida Riko," she introduced herself with the same unquestionable air as always. Letting the others' doubt and disapproval get to one would only made it increase: the best tactic was always to simply move on with life as though there was nothing odd about either of their positions and choices. 

There was a second wave of surprise and disbelief bouncing off the gym walls. 

And amidst the exclamations of having female teammates and female coaches and now the world was clearly ending what was this?, Riko demanded them all to take their shirts off and proceeded to eradicate all the skepticism in one fell swoop with her observations and pointers. 

Pointers.... 

_Point guard to point guard, let's give each other some pointers_, she thought to herself and filed it away both as an in-game mood lifter and a post-game pickup line.

Hyuuga leveled her with a terrifying look, glasses reflecting the light. "Izuki, shut up." 

"But- I didn't say anything!" 

"You were thinking it." 

Riko paused longer in front of Kagami than any other student. Izuki could understand why: even without seeing numbers or measurements wherever she looked, she had to admit he was ripped. As in he was drool-worthily, remarkably muscular, more than Mitobe or even Kiyoshi (and was that an eight pack?), the swells and dips clearly the result of hours of training and not just gymming. She wasn't usually into guys that muscular, but she had to admit he actually made it look good. 

Which was unimportant since he just needed to be a great basketball player, really, and preferably not a jackass.

She was fairly certain Koganei was staring so much his eyes'd pop out, however. 

"Definitely no spots," she whispered to a Mitobe who was too drawn into himself to visibly disprove of the shorter male, flicking his translator's forehead without as much as blinking. He didn't dignify her comment with an answer. 

"I could've sworn I would be able to tell somebody from the Generation of Miracles apart from the rest," Riko muttered under her breath as she took a few steps back. 

Then Kuroko Tetsuya happened. 

He was slight and dull-eyed with powdery blue hair, an utter lack of expression and the sort of voice which was lost in crowds. (And the sort of person who was lost in crowds, too.)

She was halfway through creating a pun including the words ghastly and ghostly when he turned out to be the Teikou kid. 

She was halfway writing him off as a benchwarmer when he announced he was a regular. 

She was halfway reaching heaven when he turned out to be the Phantom Sixth man. 

She was halfway home when realizing she hadn't even noticed him up until he made his presence known. 

How odd. Usually she noticed even they shyest of people who seemed to fade into nothingness and become part of the surroundings, even those who were content there and therefore didn't try to be noticed. (They were always so surprised when she randomly wished them a lovely day.)

She steered her bicycle around the corner, almost running over a squirrel. 

.

"Let me opun the door for you," she lunged forward to open the door for a suddenly twitching Hyuuga, her smile wide and satisfied with innocently crinkled eyes. "There you go, Captain." 

He passed her with a terrifying expression which did totally not make her both wince and feel even better. Maths class was over and they had gotten their test results back: she hadn't scored badly per se, but she'd expected far better. She was usually one of the best students when it came to maths and languages, and getting average grades for any of those subjects made her eye twitch. Admittedly, she hadn't studied enough to warrant or deserve more: skimming through last year's recap before going to sleep was very little work for the 71% she ended up receiving. But still, she still thought she'd made a good point to the teacher about the second last exercise and earning half the marks for that one instead of none. 

And a point guard's point was always valid. 

Well. 

Except in some cases, such as Hanamiya-related ones. Those were lost cases, better to be cast away just in case. 

She frowned to herself both at the thought of the Uncrowned King and her weak wordplay. No. That wasn't a good one at all. 

"Captain, your true colors are showing," she pointed out when he started muttering to himself about how he'd enjoy challenging bratty first years to a practice match to see what they were capable off. (_And_, she made an educated guess, _to forget about the first maths test of the year which was meant to see how much we could remember from last year._)

"Vice-captain, your lack of humor showed a minute ago," he answered. 

"You're mean. And I really mean that." 

Hyuuga sent her out on the pretense of needing to change. 

From the other side of the locked door, she yelled: "But you usually let me change first since I'm faster!" 

Coach Riko _did_ end up organizing a mini game between the hopeful first years (those who still wanted in, that was, which was little over half) and the seconds years, though. For the first quarter, Kagami was a one-man show and always threatened their meager lead, during the second quarter they increased their lead as they fell into their usual rhythm which lacked Kiyoshi despite their best efforts, and then suddenly the ball started veering in all sorts of directions (though always in the direction of the opposing team) and the scores evened out again. 

Sweat slicked her forehead and back, the famailiar burn in her muscles starting after the three weeks of first exams and then vacation during which they prepared for the coming school year. Izuki hoped her deodorant was still in her bag: she hadn't checked this morning and her armpits needed it after this practice. Hah, and there was a familiar sheen of sweat between the valley of her breasts. To think she'd forgotten about that. 

She needed a new sports bra, come to think of it, she was growing out of this one.

Izuki weaved around Furihata's defense and passed the ball over her shoulder without glancing, knowing Mitobe had caught it. The mute player tossed it in without hesitation. She was getting better at her backwards passes. 

At the very end of the fourth and final quarter, the ball was stolen from her from seemingly nowhere. But it wasn't nowhere who did it, it was the first year with pale blue hair and dull cerulean eyes who'd gone to Teikou who accomplished that. And he'd somehow remained undetected so far, not a hint of him lurking in her vision even as she focused her Eagle Eye to its utmost limits. So _that_ was what had earned the invisible Kuroko a place on such a renowned team. That was impressive. Annoying, too, in a petty way since she prided herself on her vision, but mostly impressive and without a doubt great for Seirin. 

He'd been the one to make the mysterious passes. 

(Her characteristic good mood was probably contributed to by knowing she wouldn't lose her position as point guard despite the variety of possible substitutes for her.)

.

"I can't believe she's doing this again," Izuki deadpanned, squiring up at Kagami precarious form balanced on the roof's fence. His booming voice reached the entire yard, and her eyes sharpened. Defeating the Generation of Miracles? 

Was such a thing possible? 

Then she recalled the previous year and thought: _it won't be possible if we don't even try_. 

And she'd be damned if she didn't give the team her all.

.

When Fukuda announced Riko was skipping her way to the gym, Izuki knew they were as screwed as the class mattress was as night. And if the fragile-looking Kimiko could survive the lecherous wrestling captain then Seirin would simply have to Survive Riko's Challenge. 

The door slammed open and the coach smiled like flowers and suns in the doorway. 

When Riko announced it was Kaijou they'd be playing against, the absurdity of the image filled Izuki with laughter and champagne fizz which bubbled to the surface. 

"Haha, up for a game against Kaijou, eh, taichou?" She grinned, slapping Hyuuga's back. Her bespectacled friend, for his part, clearly didn't appreciate the old Japanese word for captain. She supposed her slap was a rude awakening from the daydream in which he'd clearly wondered why he was helplessly in love with the monster named Aida Riko, but frankly, there was no reason for him to give her such a murderous expression. 

Kaijou had always been a high-level school, but getting their hands on one of the Generation of Miracles felt almost unfair. Then again, Seirin had Kuroko and Kagami now, as well as a synched backbone in the second years. They weren't a shabby team for only having existed a year at best. 

Kaijou still felt intimidating, however: she wasn't about to deny such a glaring fact. But they weren't about to be bulldozed. 

Bulldozed... dozing bulls... lacking animal puns...

Her pale lips curved into a smirk. 

During training, Izuki warmed to the patient Kuroko (who took Furihata and the other two remaining first years under his wing when it came to passing), as well as to Kagami. For all his threatening glowers and rough demeanor, he wasn't a punk or unpleasant. He didn't hold back and treated her no differently from the rest as they played one-on-one (undoubtedly her biggest weakness) at the far end of the court, passion vibrating in each fiber of his being. Hyuuga, Mitobe, Koganei and Tsuchida used the other hoop for lane-ups. 

The squeak of shoes against the lacquered floor and dry drumming of basketballs filled the gym. She could detect a buzz of female voices the background if she strained her ears, but then Kagami shot forward and it took all her concentration to keep up and defend. With a clever turn he passed her with barely as much as a falter, dunking above her. 

The ball bounced once before she caught it. He landed next to her.

He wasn't just tall and intense: he was fast and strong as well, with lightning reflexes thrumming beneath his tanned skin. Kagami clearly knew what he was doing. 

"Cool move," she admitted with one of her notorious grins. "Coold you teach me?" 

"Sure," he agreed in a warm rasp, accepting the orange ball she threw back to him. 

She pouted as he closed the distance back to the three point line with only a few long steps: '_He was totally oblivious_!' 

Oblivious or not, it had still been an impressive show of skills and maneuvering. Izuki was not the type to deny the talents of others, least of all a teammate. _He's got to be as good as Kiyoshi_, she gauged cautiously, not wanting to make a definite judgement. Besides, they were young enough to be constantly evolving either way, so a fixed opinion would do her more harm than good.

Some of her teammates who'd noticed the one-on-one were ooohing and aaahing at his display of raw talent. Kuroko, too, was scrutinizing him with a careful sort of consideration. 

The background buzz of female voices rose to a cacophony situated right in the very gym they were meant to practicing in. At first she didn't understand -weren't they supposed to head either home or to cram school?- but then her eyes feel upon a golden mop of hair standing taller than all the girls and an unfamiliar, sleek silvery uniform. Izuki had never considered herself close to Kimiko and her band of giggly, talkative girls who somehow made guys trail after them by fluttering their abnormally long lashes (how?) or managing to flash their targets (what?) even though the school skirt was meant to reach to brush above the knees (okay, Riko wore hers almost as short and Izuki hiked up hers as well), but apparently they were friends despite never actually talking to one another and thus they always accompanied her toward the gym, gushing about handsome models and athletes and _oh Shushu-chan, you have to tell us when you go up against Kise Ryouta-kun because we're the best of friends so we'll cheer for you and be there the entire time!_

Which was a tad creepy, frankly, since they were obsessing over somebody they'd never met. What if Kise was a horrid person? What if he ate garlic all the time and people choked by coming near him, explaining why he won so easily when it came basket even though he'd only played for two years? 

If he was a garlic fanatic, his fangirls didn't let it show. 

It took another good ten minutes before Kise was done signing autographs and rejecting the sea of girls enough to leave him alone but flatter them enough to keep them enamored. Izuki had spotted Kimiko, the thin girl suddenly pouty-lipped and possessing boobs even though the raven knew she was flatter than Riko. Had she stuffed her bra with tissues? 

Izuki had never understood the longing to have big boobs (especially not why it was a sore spot for athlete-minded Riko), perhaps because she was practical and sporty. Maybe because she already had a good pair. Most likely a combination of both. 

Eventually, the tide of fangirls subsided. 

Kise jumped down from the platform, wearing more appropriate gym shoes and, now closer and no longer obscured by her classmates, undeniably handsome. Of course private, elitist schools would have the most flattering uniforms, all slim fits and flattering lines. And obviously it was filled by a very pretty boy- man, teenager, model? Her brain threatened to go on hiatus. 

"What is he doing here?" Hyuuga asked, algae eyes narrowed with thinly veiled distrust. 

"I heard we would play a practice game against Seirin," Kise started airily as he walked toward them, all smiles and keen eyes, "and I remembered Kurokocchi went here, so I simply had to come. We were the best of friends back in middle school!" 

"Not more than the others," Kuroko rejected, something very familiar about the exchange. 

Kise cried crocodile tears. "So mean!" 

He had the longest lashes she'd ever seen, framing sharp honey eyes which were entirely too intense for a model, a strikingly symmetrical face and a slender neck. Aside from him being devastatingly attractive and somewhat mercurial, nothing more stood out during the ensuing conversation.

That was, up until he went one-on-one against Kagami and proceeded to completely destroy him with the a smoother version of move the redhead had previously used against her. After which he essentially said that Seirin sucked and that Kuroko should transfer to Kaijou instead because it was obviously the better choice and victory is everything, remember?

Kagami declared war. 

Seirin stood unanimously behind him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, I know, so I'll make this the minimum length of updates when it comes to this story. Makes it more manageable, I'd say.
> 
> Surprisingly I only needed google once for the wordplays, puns, jokes and whatnot, and that was for the very first rejection line. Which I hadn't even planned but as I was trying to get into my measly humor mood I read that and suddenly knew exactly how to start this fic.
> 
> No angst, I promised myself when I started writing this. Not a speck of angst. I tried and I don't think I failed. Usually everything I touch lately turns to angst, so I suppose this is an accomplishment :)


	2. Yellow! Yell: "oh"!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hearing (or making) jokes and puns suddenly inspires me to write more of this this. 
> 
> Sorry for the wait, it's been half finished since, well, I published chapter one, but....... life? I won't focus too much on the actual games since I'm no good at writing them and, more importantly, we already know what happens there and I'd like to keep this fic somewhat manageable when it comes to length.

Kaijou Private High School was ridiculously large, with trimmed grass and bushes, meticulously washed windows winking in the sunlight and various buildings scattered about the vast grounds like toy blocks towering above the miniaturized Seirin team. 

"What are you, a kid going on a school trip?" Kuroko was blank and monotone even when he sassed. 

"Sh-shut up," Kagami managed, eyes bloodshot and -frankly- downright terrifying. 

"As a senpai I feel the need to tell you to sleep the next time we before a game," Hyuuga advised, slanting a cool glance over the line of his shoulder at the duo behind him, entirely unsympathetic, "that tends to help."

"I know that," Kagami snapped waspishly, too tired to get overly worked up yet also unable to calm down. "I know that we're going to against a Generation of Miracles..." 

At the mere mention, a toothy smirk of excitement consumed his lower face, although the bags beneath his eyes somewhat diminished its fire by rendering them mildly unfocused and glassy. 

"Hm, I've got an emergency thermos of coffee with me," Izuki mused and dug around in her dangerously stuffed bag which groaned at the seams. "You can have it." 

"Yes," he agreed greedily (good one!), and she handed him her neon lavender thermos upon which Riko had drawn a series of evil smiley faces over the past year, one worse than the other. He chugged back a few audible gulps, only to spit it out onto the previously clean and unstained concrete, coughing and spluttering with some of the dark liquid dribbling down his chin.

In what Izuki knew to be the most American of English she'd ever heard (outside of TV shows) he exclaimed: "_It's hella cold and bitter!_" 

"You just vandalized Kaijou property," Kuroko intoned. 

"It's disgusting," he defended loudly, eyes flashing crimson. "It's a shitty potion, that's what it is!"

"It's three days old, last Thursday was a dayrrible day," Izuki smiled broadly, eyes twinkling and at least three people behind her suffering with choked-back laughter. "You're awake now."

Kise chose that moment to come running toward them, clad in baggy training clothes, somehow just as handsome as he'd been in his pristine suit (and definitely more approachable). 

His voice was as smooth and alluring as his outward appearance, cutting through the crisp morning air. 

"Hey, guys! Kaijou's so big so I thought I'd escort you," he beamed like a sun, waving and bypassing the entire team in favor of blocking Kuroko's way. "Ahhhh, ever since you rejected me I've been crying into my pillow every night! I've never been rejected before, though I usually only ever ask girls... They really like me, if you know what I mean, and never say no." 

"That's quite rude on behalf of the girls," Kuroko defended half heartedly. 

"But no less true!"

"Ahaha," Izuki smiled sweetly, holding out her reconquered neon thermos as a gift. "I'd be overjoyed if Kise-kun would drink my specially made coffee." 

Kagami slapped the smiley-covered contraption from her pale hand, exclaiming: "I wanna battle him alive, vice-captain, his liver would explode if he drank that poison!" 

"Battle him?" Koganei repeated in a low mutter. "This is basketball, not World War Three."

Kise only laughed, picking up the bottle which had rolled to bump against his feet and handing it back to Izuki: "Here you go." 

"Thanks," she accepted neutrally, slipping it back into her bag.

Then he blinked, eyes narrowing and even up close there were no flaws marring him. Dead serious, he established: "Even Aomine-kun would agree that your face is girlier than mine. He loses that bet."

"I'd have been insulted if I hadn't been a girl to begin with," she grinned brightly like a flashlight into his face (she was starting to think she wasn't overly fond of models). 

First, he blinked. 

The he smiled whitely with too much glitter for it not to be a deliberate choice. "How cute!" He clapped his hands together. "I've never met a girl playing on a male team!" 

Izuki found the reason behind that to be quite obvious, but didn't point that out. 

"Haha, Seirin is quite the odd team," he laughed, head tilted flatteringly with lidded eyes. 

"Stop being so sarcastic," Kuroko requested. 

Kise's expression sharpened when it morphed into small smile: a real, solid one this time. "I'm curious about the one who has made Kurokocchi act this way." 

And he turned to a glaring Kagami, head cocked to the side although none of his happy-go-lucky flair remained. 

"So," he started, "what's so special about you?"

_Really_, Izuki thought as Kagami fumed very, very loudly, _Kise shouldn't have phrased that in such an insulting manner_. 

.

It turned out they were meant to play on half-court. 

And that Riko was the manager type. 

And that the highest hopes Kaijou had about Seirin was not tripling their score. 

(And that the entire Kaijou team was much taller, fitter, more experienced and technically skilled than they were, in a Rikoesque translation of Izuki's own hormones.)

"Well, this'll be fun," Izuki chimed as they reentered the gym. It was a large, well cared-of space which betrayed Kaijou's focus on sports in every aspect of its very being. She slanted a glance up at Hyuuga: their eyes met. She said nothing and neither did he, her eyes a steady, determined silver and his an unshakable, poised algae. He nodded, curt. She smiled, a small curl of the lips as her eyes narrowed. 

"Let's go do this shit," Hyuuga muttered as he deposited his bag next to Riko on the bench. He kept on muttering vaguely threat-like things under his breath, seeming to calm down with the steady stream of unintelligible words pouring from his lips. Riko didn’t glance up from her paper. 

"He'll be fine," Izuki assured a somewhat concerned Kawahara who hadn't known his captain for long enough to have found the trick to discerning his muttering. "His prayers are _fine_ite, after all.”

"_Izuki_." 

"See?" She beamed at Kawahara, ignoring the murky green glare digging into her back. "He's all good."

"I don't know," Furihata, who joined them along with Fukuda, fretted, "he seems...." He shrugged somewhat helplessly. 

"Yeah," Fukuda agreed, quiet enough to make sure Hyuuga wouldn't overhear, "he's really intense at the moment." 

Izuki opened her mouth to object and assure, but then closed it when seeing what was going on: they were confirming each other's statements and therefore reinforcing the idea they were right, and somehow they were still stuck with the notion that she'd agree because that was what cute girls with well-maintained hair (cassis shampoo and coconut conditioner, an unbeatable combination) did. 

Silver eyes narrowed, hands in her hips. "Are you doubting my judgement?" 

"What?" Kawahara was bewildered. 

"No-" Fukuda tried. 

"Good," she then grinned, too toothily, "and don't doubt his, either, because Hyuuga-kun's an awesome captain. You can come to either him or me with any problems and we'll fix it." 

It probably wasn't the best idea to doubt or worry about the team leader when about to have the first game of the season, but she supposed it was better to get that over with now than during a far worse time. Then again, she'd been rather worried about Hyuuga during her very first game as well, after which Hyuuga's reactions only became a source of comfort and fueled her determination. 

"Team!" Riko called and Seirin huddled around their young coach whose cinnamon eyes stood sharp and bright. There was a pause as said gaze scanned them all, and then she spoke: "Let's give it our all and show them they're dead wrong." 

"Mhm," nodded Hyuuga, glasses flashing. "Let's go do this!" 

The team cheered. Izuki headed out onto the half-court together with her friends and teammates. From the corner of her eye she spotted Kagami (and probably Kuroko, too, in that case though she unsurprisingly couldn't spot him) and Kise talking, the former twitching and the latter smiling with glib satisfaction. 

The raven turned her attention to the young man in front of her in the forming lineup: Kasamatsu Yukio, third year, team captain and point guard. He'd be her problem. Well, she preferred thinking of it as herself being his problem: she'd take that _blame_ as a _pro_ (good one?). He stared right back, a few fingers taller, broad-shouldered, possessing a mop of dark hair cropped short and piercing slate eyes seeming especially keen because of his defined eyebrows. 

He scowled in the face of her scrutiny. 

She smiled back, though it wasn't a nice smile. It was her game smile. 

"Um," the young referee started, "Seirin lacks a member in their lineup..." 

From next to the poor guy and very much ready and on spot, Kuroko said: "I'm right here." 

Most of Kaijou choked on thin air. It filled her with an oddly warm, mushy and bubbly sort of satisfaction which she mentally noted not to ever get addicted to. That wouldn't end well, especially for those unfortunate souls who'd have to get scared every few minutes for the feeling to linger. She bit the inside of her cheek to stifle a smile, though when Kasamatsu's scowl intensified she knew she'd still been too radiant. She beamed right into his face for good measure, too wide and with eyes too slitted. 

The ball was thrown up, the whistle sounded, and the match begun. 

It ended just as quickly since Kagami went and broke the hoop with his greeting dunk. Izuku turned to tell Riko: "He's a Bakag-" 

But said coach had already shot up from the bench like a ballistic missile and flashed over to where Kagami stood, hoop still in hand, and smacked him with her notepad: "Bakagami! Who do you think will pay for that, huh? Huh!?" 

There was some ensuing commotion which Izuki waited out in favor of taking pleasure in watching the court being changed to full-court and the official hoops being lowered with a suspenseful buzz. It was decided that, since Kagami had broken both a hoop and Kaijou's coach competitive temperament, it'd be played like a proper practice match instead of a side-show. _And_ that Kise would try to return the favor, it turned out, when he opened the game with an even more impressive dunk of his own. Unfortunately for Kaijou and Kise's back which grew acquaintanced with Kasamatsu's foot, however, the bolts weren't rusted and it remained firmly intact. 

It was Izuki's ball, which she experimentally dribbled once, twice, thrice in front of Kasamatsu -good reflexes, faster than her, perceptive eyes, cute scowl- and then passed to Mitobe, who in turn passed to Hyuuga who scored. Then it was Kasamatsu's ball, and he broke past her but then had to pass to one of his teammates who passed to Kise and then they scored. The ball was back in her hands, a feint lured Kasamatsu to the side, she got a better position and passed it all the way to Kagami, score, Kaijou's ball again and on it went, again and again until her lungs burned even though it was only a few minutes in and she started despairing about the fact that she hadn't taken morning jogs as seriously as she should have during the holidays. She'd only done them every second day. 

Halfway through the first quarter, Riko requested a Time Out and received it. There was a two point difference, Kaijou in the lead though just barely. Sinking down on the bench, Izuki breathed out slowly, deeply, trying to steady her breathing. Kise was being scolded by the Kaijou coach on the opposite end of the court, and though she couldn't hear what was being said it didn't seem very nice. The blonde was smiling sheepishly, which really shouldn’t look as good abs it did.

"If he'd been a chicken, he'd have been impeccable," she lit up with a content smile flashing across her features, starry-eyed.

"Um, Izuki-san," Furihata started carefully, a look of incomprehension dawning onto him, "why'd you want him to be a chicken? So that we'd win easier?"

The raven struggled to breathe, clutching her chest: "The pun, Furihata-kun, the pun."

"We have to slow this game down," Riko spoke, ignoring them, "it's too fast paced and we don't have the stamina to keep this up. On top of that, they have a bench full of seasoned players, something we don't have." 

"I agree," Kuroko spoke up, so quietly she almost didn't hear. "This is taking a huge toll on my body, my misdirection is weakening even faster than it usually does." 

Izuki was reminded of the time she'd bought a cake in a shop and ignored the fine print, ending up with an allergic reaction against the coloring pumped into the dough. In this case the situation was that Riko and Hyuuga had based their strategy around Kuroko's invisibility, and the fine print was that it'd only last for about ten more minutes instead of another thirty-five. There wasn't an allergic reaction, she supposed, but seeing Riko's apoplectic fit made her wonder if this wasn't an equivalent. 

The game resumed and Kaijou slowly pulled ahead: a four point difference, six, then back to four (she did that!), then six and then eight. 

Then Kagami and Kuroko started coordinating their attacks and the point difference even back out again, and then the first quarter ended. 

"Kuroko's so cool, isn't he?" Kise gushed to a very irritated Kasamatsu as they headed back to their bench. "Did you see-" 

"Shut up, all of Seirin's crazy." 

"I know, right?" And here his smile widened ominously and Izuki's warning bells went off. (She wasn't _eavesdropping_, that would imply she could _prevent_ hearing what they were saying when passing her.) She'd steeled herself by the time he continued: "I mean, their PG is a girl. Wouldn't she be your type, Kasamatsu-senpai? You might actually be able to talk for once!" 

Kasamatsu bristled something which was not very PG rated (haha!), and Izuki smiled at him (she wasn't heartless, he _did_ seem shocked) with fingers flashing up to her eye in a v-sign. "You play well." 

He spluttered something unintelligible, reddened both with embarrassment and raw fury, turned on his heel and dragged Kise along in the opposite direction. How rude. A frown settled on her face, brows furrowing as she headed back to her own bench. She informed Hyuuga with the sole intent of cheering herself up: "Kaijou's captain is a jerk." 

His indignation on her behalf made her smother a giggle while she reached for her water bottle. 

.

Second quarter started with Seirin in possession of the ball. Kasamatsu's teeth seemed to have merged together what with how much he ground his jaw when he stood in front of her, taller and broader but somehow looking at her as though she had the sort of skills which shouldn't legally be allowed on court and he'd have liked to have her arrested. She didn't feel like smiling in the face of somebody who needed a few painkillers and proceeded to press for a drive, which he managed to prevent after a split-second fumble, and then he seemed to push her gender out of his head and played with the same skills as previously. He stole the ball, passed it to Kise who had it stolen back by Kuroko who instantly passed to Kagami. 

And then it all went wrong. 

When Kise turned to chase after Kagami, Kuroko still stood close and his misdirection hadn't weakened enough for Kise to be aware of the proximity. The model's arm swung around and struck Kuroko's temple, sending the short boy sprawling across the floor. The whistle was blown (referee Time Out) and Kuroko was deemed unfit to continue playing due to the profusely bleeding cut across his forehead caused by falling to the floor. 

Izuki couldn't help checking the lacquered planks for flecks of blood when she passed the spot he'd fallen on. 

"Painful," she winced when finding a smudged streak, then glanced up toward Kaijou's regulars: "You might wanna have this cleaned right away, blood's awful to remove once it dries." 

She spoke from experience, naturally, which seemed to occur to Kasamatsu who promptly experimented with different shades of red to blush with. His vice captain got a second string boy to clean it up. Once that was done, Kuroko had been carried off and Koganei entered the court, rolling his shoulders. He told Mitobe: "I'm kind of excited to play." 

Mitobe nodded, head tilted vaguely to the side and left eyebrow twitching. 

"Hmm, true, I see what you mean. I'll keep it in mind. Well, let's go do this!" 

That was exactly what happened. Kagami and Kuroko were undoubtedly star players in the making, but they hadn't been on the team for long and even with Kiyoshi gone it was as though they were a watch suddenly snapping into place with all the cogs in the right places. She barely needed Eagle Eye to determine their positions, felt her heartbeat echo in the ball, and Kagami seemed to realize his seniors' synched play and adapted to it instinctively, combining Kiyoshi's spirit and height with someone more offensive, feral. And Kise was his match, none backing down. 

She passed to Hyuuga, who scored, then it was Kaijou's ball and Kasamatsu passed her with a magnificent drive when she pushed but was then forced to pass to a teammate when Koganei appeared, said teammate scored and it was her ball again, she feinted and passed him and passed to Mitobe, who was blocked from the net by the Center, and he passed back to her and she scored herself. Kaijou's ball, _Kise's_ ball, and he scored right over Kagami's head, which the redhead returned with vigor and on it was, not as fast-paced as the first half even though the sheer smoothness of it almost made it seem that way. The points racked up on both sides, defense once again rendered useless, and it took all she had to keep up and it was fun, she was alive, the players were good on both sides and everybody played fairly. 

It was probably the sheer excitement of it all which made her turn to Kasamatsu Yukio, who was sweaty and flushed and steel-eyed, and chime: "Point Guard to Point Guard, let's give each other some pointers after this?" 

It took a moment for the meaning to register, but when they did it was with the effect of somebody who'd downed a whole bottle of vodka in one go. Izuki was nice, but not so nice that she'd wait for him to get over his stuttering before diving past. His attempt to stop her was valiant, and very much futile, because she passed to Hyuuga who should have been in her blind spot though her Eagle Eye meant she was very much aware of his exact location. 

Hyuuga straightened. Hyuuga jumped. Hyuuga shot. And Hyuuga scored three points. 

In the background, Kasamatsu was being pep-talked to by the tall, glossy-haired Shooting Guard who had visibly made it his mission to breathe back life into the deflating Kasamatsu Yukio balloon which seemed likely to fall apart. 

"A cute girl is flirting with you," he tried, standing close as though waiting for his friend to fall, "that's good, Yukio. That's great, and she's into basketball. I can check her out in her school uniform for you later, if you'd like- no, no, that's okay, I won't do that, don't worry- yes that's right, get angry at Kise for not shutting down Kagami, that'll help." 

The game resumed, but before any team could score (the defense was remembering their duty almost twenty minutes too late) the air was cut by the whistle which announced the second quarter to be over. It was time for a ten minute break and Izuki figured that was very, very necessary. maybe she shouldn't tell Hyuuga about the episode which had occurred just now: he was terrified of the idea that any of his teammates could end up fraternizing with the enemy. And now that enemy was a basketball team with a Generation of Miracles there, not to mention the fact that they were all top tier players. That was the sort of thing which Hyuuga wanted to go up against, while Izuki- 

Well, Izuki was a healthily developing teenage girl who liked cute, smart girls and talented basketball players. Unfortunately, usually the ones she was facing off against instead of those on the team, there was just something very satisfying about making Hyuuga angry and, far more importantly, fancying an opponent was both attractive in itself and a dangerously alluring thought. 

She should probably make sure Riko didn’t catch of whiff of that, either. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kudos and comments, they've been much appreciated ;))))
> 
> Fem!Izuki is so awesome, I love her. I think I wrote "down to earth absurdity" in one of the comments when describing her. I want to actually be her now. Writing her is such a feel-good thing to do, especially when Kasamatsu is involved. 
> 
> Now, for a list of all those there'll be something vaguely attraction-based with (can range from harmless, weird-attraction meeting of eyes to actual kissing and necking, so half of the names below might not actually deserve to be there in your mind):  
Kiyoshi  
Kise  
Kasamatsu  
Midorima  
Takao  
Akashi  
Hayama  
Mayuzumi  
Imayoshi  
Aomine  
Momoi  
Wakamatsu  
Hanamiya  
Hara  
That One Weird Guy Who'll Most Likely Be The Cliche Waiter
> 
> Merry Christmas!


End file.
